Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona is a vast and rugged stretch of desert that supports a remarkable diversity of creatures. Resident species include at least 60 mammals, 14 of them bats, plus 350 bird species and more than 100 reptiles. This remote region also has become popular with drug smugglers. A team of scientists recently surveyed the monument because of the bats; they were protected by elite park rangers armed with assault weapons because of the...more

The world’s largest colony of bats flies out of Bracken Bat Cave around sundown each summer evening. Up to 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats spiral out from the cave mouth in a dense vortex, so many that you can hear the flutter of flapping wings. They peel off into thick ribbons for their night of hunting over the Texas Hill Country, often with hawks and owls diving into their midst to snatch an unlucky few. Before they return at dawn, these bats will have eaten some 200 tons of insects...more

European scientists are attacking White-nose Syndrome, the disease that has devastated bat populations throughout the northeastern United States and beyond. WNS, linked to a distinctive white fungus, threatens bats across North America, yet the fungus seems to have been reported in several European countries at least since the 1980s – without killing bats. Scientists on both sides of the Atlantic are trying to figure out what’s going on, reports German broadcaster Deutsche Welle ...more